CEO/Executive Editor
Dan Pulcrano
NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN [ISSN 1532-0154] (incorporating
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Cover Photo of Ava Burlison by Gabe Meline.
Design by Kara Brown.

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FILLING STATION The old

neon sign at Mario & Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in
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â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Finding this out now is like
being hit on the head by a 2-by-4.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;
COV ER STORY P21

Rhapsodies
The Search for War
Is Washington even pretending to be
interested in peace anymore?
BY NORMAN SOLOMON

I

n times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked
about yearning for peace. “I am continuing and I
am increasing the search for every possible path
to peace,” Lyndon Johnson said while escalating the
Vietnam War. In early 1991, the ﬁrst President Bush
offered the public this convolution: “Even as planes of
the multinational forces attack Iraq, I prefer to think of
peace, not war.” More than a decade later, George W.
Bush told a joint session of Congress: “We seek peace.
We strive for peace.”
While absurdly hypocritical, such claims mouthed the idea that
the United States need not be at war 24/7. But the last decade has
brought a gradual shift in the rhetorical Zeitgeist while a tacit
assumption has taken hold—war must go on, one way or another.
In this era, after all, the amorphous foe known as “terror” will never
surrender—beatable, but never quite defeatable.
A permanent-war psychology has dug a groove alongside the
permanent-war economy. Right now, we’re told, President Obama is
wrestling with the question of how much to reduce U.S. troop levels
in Afghanistan. But just as the reduction of U.S. troop strength in
Iraq allowed for escalation in Afghanistan, the search for enemies is
apt to be inexhaustible.
The tacit assumption of war without end is now the old normal,
again renewed in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death. Every
day, the warfare wallpaper inside the mass-media echo chamber
becomes more familiar, blurring the public vision into more drowsy
acceptance of perpetual war.
Years ago, U.S. military spending climbed above $2 billion per
day. Some of the consequences can be understood in the context of
words that President Dwight Eisenhower uttered in April 1953.
In the speech, Eisenhower declared: “Every gun that is made,
every warship launched, every rocket ﬁred signiﬁes, in the ﬁnal
sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are
cold and are not clothed. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true
sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging
from a cross of iron.”
Norman Solomon is the author of a dozen books, including ‘War Made
Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.’ He lives
in Marin, where he is a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.
We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words
considered for publication, write openmic@bohemian.com.

Powered for
the People

Hobbs vs.
Jenkel

Cutting ties
with PG&E and
developing a
local power
supply through a
Community Choice
Aggregation (CCA) is
a noble goal (“Voltage and Violets,”
May 25). The article names some
possible local power sources: solar
panels, geothermal, chicken manure,
wave power.

I agree with Bruce Robinson (“Sour
Grapes,” May 18) that John Jenkel
has been an overbearing person. He
has paid the homeless to protest his
causes and has shouted loudly in public
meetings, the very deﬁnition of a loon,
and in my opinion has given the antiwar movement a bad name.

PG&E has recently abandoned trying to
generate electricity from ocean waves. If
PG&E can’t do it, I doubt that a Sonoma
County CCA can. “Sonoma County
is the Saudi Arabia of geothermal
energy,” gushed the article, “with room
to expand.” I read the environmental
impact statement (EIS) section
regarding seismic activity, when Santa
Rosa began pumping its wastewater
into the Geysers, some years ago.
The EIS stated that this action would
increase the incidence of earthquakes,
which it has. Just ask the residents of
Cobb, near the Geysers, after reading
the ofﬁcial statistics. Cloverdale is too
close for comfort to the Geysers. Santa
Rosa’s wastewater could trigger our
Big One.
As for chicken droppings and solar
energy, I hope that they work. It would
be ﬁtting for a chickenshit utility like
PG&E to be bested by bird turds.

PHILIP RATCLIFF
Cloverdale

Sorry, Ry Cooder
I thought you captured perfectly, in one
brief phrase, the entire mood of Down
Home Music and Arhoolie: “Eyefuls of
boredom” (“Fifty Years of Howlin’,”
Jan. 26). I know this scene very well,
and you were able to convey it without
belaboring a thing. Excellent work.

SANDY ROTHMAN
Berkeley

But just as a teacher does not steal a
child’s lunch money just because he
disrupts the classroom, the Sonoma
County court shouldn’t have given away
John Jenkel’s land simply for being an
annoyance.
Winemaker Paul Hobbs says this all
started with Jenkel damaging his trees,
but driving along Highway 116 shows
what his retribution is: Jenkel’s redwood
trees, chopped into oblivion. Clearcutting redwood trees to put in more
vineyards for the so-called community
good? What sort of community does he
think he lives in?
It is my hope that the court reverses
its decision or offers some kind of
retribution, but it’s already too late—
the redwoods have been felled. All we
can hope for is that when Paul Hobbs
himself is old and senile, someone takes
advantage of him the way he’s abused
John Jenkel, and steals the land back.

DON ELLIOTT
Forestville

Buy a Parks Pass
There is a very simple way to keep
all of our state parks open and have
enough funding to properly maintain all
facilities: buy an annual state parks pass.
Instead of spending money on political
campaigns to raise taxes, every person
who voted for the state parks bond
needs to buy an annual pass.
California voters numbering 4,190,793
voted yes on Proposition 21 in last
year’s election. Multiply that by $125,
and our State Parks system would gain

Rants

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH E MI A N.COM

THIS MODERN WORLD

7

By Tom Tomorrow

Visit the

$523,849,125—money that would go
directly into State Parks coffers and
cannot be reallocated or moved to other
state agencies or to the general fund.
Each and every dollar stays with our
State Parks.
Buy your pass today; it’s the only sureﬁre way to preserve and protect our
valuable cultural and natural resources.

DAN YOUNG
Aptos

A Freeway Fix
Here’s an idea: Instead of reading “Slow
trafﬁc use right lane” (“Who, me? I’m
not a slow driver . . .”), what if we made
the more accurate request “Left lane for
passing only”?

J. T. YOUNGER

Santa Cruz

Top Five
1 Farewell to Gil Scott-

Heron, a great American
and a true original

2 Wine shop the Serial

Cokas Diko Outlet

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Grapist destined to be run
the hell out of Healdsburg

3 Dodger fan drops

daughter to try and catch
baseball, drops baseball too

4 Howard Station Cafe’s new
“Dog Menu”—especially for
Bowser, served in silver bowls

At Empire College, programs are
tailor-made to help you get the
skills employers want. With no
closed classes or unnecessary
electives, you can prepare
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your existing skills in
just 6 to 18 months.

Paper
CHINO HORDE Prisoners are piled three to a bunk in the gymnasium at the California Institution for Men in Chino, Calif.

Prison Break

Will a historic Supreme Court ruling ﬁnally force
California’s prison system to clean up its act?
BY LEILANI CLARK

T

he word “gulag”
conjures images
of dank, slimy
Russian prisons
overrun with rats, teeming
with inmates conﬁned to
tiny cages and standing
in puddles of their own
urine—not a scene normally
associated with the United
States. But according

to a Supreme Court
ruling issued on May 23,
overcrowding in California
prisons has led to gulag-like
conditions, constitutional
violations and treatment of
inmates verging on cruel
and unusual punishment.
In a 5–4 majority ruling written
by Justice Anthony Kennedy,
the Supreme Court stated that

the governor must reduce the
Golden State’s prison population
by approximately 33,000 inmates
over the next two years after
revelations of rampant Eighth
Amendment violations in the
prison system arose.
Three photographs were
appended to the court’s majority
decision in Brown v. Plata,
showing prisoners crowded into
gymnasiums stacked
one on top of the other in ) 10

St. Helena
Star publisher
Doug Ernst has
accused the
St. Helena City
Council of violating the Brown
Act, charging that a March 30
closed session agenda failed to
disclose to the public that the
council would be discussing city
manager Mary Neilan’s ﬁring and
severance package. According to
a “cure and correct” letter ﬁled
by Ernst at the end of May, the
council has engaged in other
closed-session agendas, secret
voting and unclear meeting
locations, practices which could
expose the city to potential
litigation. “More importantly, it
exposes the council’s overall
contempt for open government,
which this newspaper is required
to report,” writes Ernst. Mayor Del
Britton has defended the council’s
actions, but has come short of
addressing all of Ernst’s concerns,
leading to further questions
about how much secrecy is
allowed, if any, in decisions made
by city council.

Bird Calls
More than 500
people have
been killed by
devastating
tornadoes across
the Midwest
in 2011. After Joplin, Miss., was
pummeled by a “supercell”
tornado last week, 232 people
remain missing and 125 are dead.
While climate-change author Bill
McKibben proclaims that “we’re
making the earth a more dynamic
and violent place,” the Climate
Protection Campaign will look
at how all of this affects the
bird population. Conservation
science expert Ellie Cohen shares
strategies on how to manage
natural resources in the face of
accelerating changes to climate,
ocean and land use on Friday,
June 3, at the Dwight Center for
Conservation Science. 3450 Franz
Valley Road, Santa Rosa. 7pm.
Free. 707.591.9310.—Leilani Clark

The Bohemian started as The Paper in 1978

9
NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH E MI A N.COM

THE

Citizen Ernst

NORTH BAY BOH EM I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BO H E M I AN.COM

10

Prisons ( 9
“ugly beds,” and telephone-booth
sized cages with no toilets where
inmates on suicide watch are held
for long periods. (After 24 hours,
one inmate ended up catatonic
and standing in a puddle of
his own urine.) In the decision,
Justice Kennedy describes a
broken prison system where
thousands of prisoners are denied
access to the most basic medical
and mental healthcare. “A prison
that deprives prisoners of basic
sustenance, including inadequate
medical care, is incompatible with
the concept of human dignity and
has no place in civilized society,”
he writes.

One inmate
ended up
catatonic and
standing in a
puddle of his
own urine.
With one of the largest prison
systems in the world, California
houses more than 143,000
prisoners in facilities designed
for less than 80,000, according to
the Prison Law Office. Monday’s
ruling says that the population
must be reduced to 110,000.
“All the Supreme Court has
done is essentially affirm what
people have been saying for
a decade,” says Ruth Wilson
Gilmore, author of Golden
Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis
and Opposition in Globalizing
California. “The ruling puts
into motion, with force of law,
recommendations from all kinds
of people, including Republicans
like George Deukmejian.”
A fear-mongering backlash to
the ruling has erupted among
conservatives, originating from
comments made in a dissent by
Justice Antonin Scalia, who called
the decision “staggering” and
“absurd.” In a heated statement
from the bench, Scalia said that

the released “will not be prisoners
with medical conditions or severe
mental illness, and many will
undoubtedly be ﬁne physical
specimens who have developed
intimidating muscles pumping
iron in the prison gym.”
Gilmore, one of the founders of
abolitionist prison organization
Critical Resistance, which seeks
to “end the prison-industrial
complex,” says that she is
outraged by not only Scalia’s
comments, but those made in
a separate dissent by Justice
Samuel A. Alito Jr., who wrote
“the majority is gambling on the
safety of the people of California.”
“Fear is central to this, and
fear is racist,” Gilmore tells the
Bohemian. “You know as well as I
do when someone says criminal,
the image that comes to people’s
minds is a black man with big
muscles.”
Reached by phone, David
Spady, California director of
Americans for Prosperity, a
taxpayer-advocacy group funded
by evangelical Christian media
company Salem Communications,
says that the Supreme Court
ruling enables the state
government to “release prisoners
onto the streets when they [the
government] run out of money.”
“We think it’s an outrageous
and potentially dangerous
situation that they are putting
California into,” says Spady. “The
governor and the Legislature’s
ﬁrst priority should be public
safety.”
But according to Jeanne
Woodford, San Quentin warden
from 1999 to 2004 and who is now
the executive director of Death
Penalty Focus, public safety is not
an issue.
“When you look at 2009,
47,000 inmates went to state
prison for 90 days or less, and
that isn’t public safety,” says
Woodford. According to a study
by the Center for EvidenceBased Corrections at UC Irvine,
California leads the nation in
sending parolees back to prison.
Parole violators now represent
67 percent of all admissions.
Woodford testiﬁed in the Brown
v. Plata case, she says, because
overcrowding during
her tenure as warden
) 13

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conditions such as those at Mule Creek a ‘powder keg waiting to go off.’

prevented the provision of
constitutionally adequate mental
and physical health services
to inmates. She describes how
inmates were corralled into the
gymnasium and even the historic
chapels at San Quentin when they
ran out of room. Prisons operating
at 190 percent overcrowding (a
ﬁgure affirmed in the Supreme
Court ruling) are a “powder keg
waiting to go off,” says Woodford.
One way to comply with the
court ruling lies in Gov. Brown’s
realignment plan, now awaiting
funding after being passed
by both Legislature and the
governor, says Woodford. The
state plan calls for diverting some
short-term, low-risk felons to
county jails or home detention
rather than prison.
Others like Gilmore say the
transfer of inmates to county jails
is not enough, and that it’s time
to examine why people end up in
prison in the ﬁrst place.
“There are all kinds of things
that are criminalized now that
were not before this big prison
build-up,” she says. “Somebody
might have gotten a ticket in 1978
for something that would send
them to prison in 2011.”
Since statistics overwhelmingly
show that a disproportionate
number of those that end up
in prison are poor, illiterate or

suffering from mental-health
issues, the ruling could provide
an opportunity for California to
look at why these people have
been shoved away in cages and
“ugly beds.” Alcohol- and drugtreatment programs, mental
healthcare and alternative
community sanctions are all
ways that those being funneled
into and out of prisons can
be rehabilitated within the
community instead.
“Ninety-ﬁve percent of the
people that come to our prisons
leave our prisons, and most
people come and go within a
year,” says Rebekah Evenson,
staff attorney with the Prison Law
Office, whose director, Donald
Specter, argued the Brown v. Plata
case.
“All the research shows that
sending people to overcrowded
prisons, where they are getting
no rehabilitative programming
because all of the space for
providing programs is ﬁlled
with bunk beds, only increases
recidivism and crime,” says
Evenson. “By taking a hard look
at who we send to $50,000-a-year
prison beds, and how we treat
our prisoners, we can actually
improve outcomes while saving
money by incarcerating fewer
people and providing more
community-based approaches.”

n the end, we will
conserve only what
we love,” ecologist
Baba Dioum told an
international conservation
group in 1968. “We will love
only what we understand,
and we will understand only
what we are taught.”

When you look good, we look good.
The new, all-color North Bay Bohemian.

Forty-one years after that
speech, Dioum’s oft-quoted
sentiment resonates with
environmental educators,
including those at Marin
Headlands Institute, who teach
more than 20,000 visitors a year
to understand, to love and to
conserve this particular coastal
paradise. For the past two years,
the institute has boldly added
climate science to its curriculum
and is offering assistance to
teachers bold enough to teach
it. On June 20–21, a professional
development workshop will be
offered free to middle school

teachers (grades six through
eight), with a focus on climate
science in the classroom.
With such scorching
controversy surrounding that
particular branch of science right
now, I couldn’t help but wonder
whether anyone at the Headlands
had been burned for teaching
climate science. Talking with
education director Melissa Meiris,
I learn that it’s the schoolteachers
themselves, not the institute staff,
who take the heat from parents.
“If a teacher who brings a class
selects climate science from the
menu of topics, then we teach it,”
explains Meiris. “If they choose
it, they generally have buy-in
from the parents, although
educators occasionally do have a
student who wants to debate. But
we’re careful to avoid setting up
situations that encourage debate.
We talk about the carbon cycle, the
weather, the greenhouse effect.”
Sticking with the science has
been the norm since the institute
was founded in 1977, but the most
important part of reaching and
teaching kids and adults over the
years is simple: immersion in a
gloriously unspoiled landscape.
“Where we have to begin,”
explains Meiris, “is to provide
people experiences with nature. I
don’t think people care about or
take action about things unless
they have a personal experience
with them.” The results, according
to Meiris, are multiple “a-ha”
moments. “Those moments
happen where a child is sitting on
the hillside writing in a journal
and feeling really inspired because
they just learned that this place is
a national park and it belongs to all
of us. Or when a teacher goes back
to school and starts a recycling
program.”
Teachers participating in the Marin
Headlands Institute’s free program
this month will spend two days and
one overnight stay at the Headlands
while they work on climate curriculum
with their peers. Teacher registration
deadline is Wednesday, June 1. For
more information, contact program
coordinator Amy Osborne. aosborne@
naturebridge.org. 415.332.5771, ext. 14.

15
NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Dining
Katrina Fried

NORTH BAY BOHEM I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BO H E M I AN.COM

16

QUICK ’N’ EASY Dahl puri at Lotus Chaat, where portions are large, prices are low and ﬂavor is robust.

Chaating It Up
Delectable Indian street food at San Rafael’s Lotus Chaat
BY KATRINA FRIED

L

otus Chaat and
Spices, a new
casual Indian
eatery and market
on a nondescript stretch of
Fourth Street in downtown
San Rafael, is proof that
delicious, affordable eats
can be found in the most
unexpected places.
The only restaurant in the
North Bay to serve India’s
traditional street foods, Lotus
Chaat may have the ambiance of a

cheerful cafeteria but it produces
vegetarian dishes that taste of
exceptional home cooking. This
is not the ﬁrst time around the
block for owner Surinder “Pal”
Sroa, whose empire of restaurants
already includes Cafe Lotus in
Fairfax, Lotus Cuisine of India in
San Rafael and Anokha Cuisine
of India and Golden Egg Omelet
House in Novato.
To reach the spacious and
colorfully painted dining room,
customers walk through a small
specialty market, packed with

shelves of fragrant Indian sauces,
spices, herbal remedies and
snacks, and a large freezer full of
take-away packaged foods. It is a
more tempting pause on the way
out, when the memory of the meal
is still fresh and the desire to take
a bit of those Indian ﬂavors home
is strong.
Though the ingredients of
many of the dishes at Lotus Chaat
are familiar, their preparations
were entirely new to me. Chaat
(literally translated as “lick”)
make up a broad category of

Indian snacks that generally
share a component of bread or
dough, served cool or at room
temperature, and are easy to eat
on the go.
The ﬁrst dish I tried was dahl
puri—bite-sized, crispy, hollow
breads (almost like mini poori)
ﬁlled with potato, chili and
tamarind, and doused in a lightly
sweetened yogurt. As my waiter
set them down on the table, he
advised that these are best eaten
ﬁrst and quickly, before the bread
turns soggy. With each mouthful
there was an explosion of ﬂavors—
tart, spicy, sweet and salty: a
wake-me-up for the taste buds.
The menu’s chaat offerings are
followed by a selection of South
Indian specialties, such as giant
paper-thin dosas wrapped around
a ﬁlling of potatoes, tofu and
vegetables, and vada, a dense,
chewy, deep-fried doughnutshaped pastry that comes
slathered in a cool yogurt sauce
or submerged in a bowl of hot
sambar, a thick spicy vegetable
soup. (A friendly couple originally
from Mumbai sitting at the next
table described this to me as
the “gumbo of India” (minus
the meat), and that is a perfect
American translation.) A cup of
sambar also accompanies the
dosas, for dipping like gravy, and
the combination is addictive.
Perhaps my favorite dish of all
was the ﬁnale, chole bhature, large,
puffy ﬂatbreads, deep-fried to
order and served alongside a warm
spiced chickpea stew. Sweet and
savory, crunchy and chewy, it’s
best eaten with the hands and could
easily have been a meal in itself.
Most of the vegetarian dishes
at Lotus Chaat are priced at
a modest $5.99, and portions
aren’t skimpy. A mango lassi is
an excellent foil to the spiciness
of dinner; fruit ﬂavored Indian
sodas, masala chai tea and madras
coffee round out the drinks
menu. This is the perfect food for
sharing and tasting and having
just one bite more.
Lotus Chaat and Spices, 1561 Fourth St.,
San Rafael. Open Tuesday through
Saturday, 11am–8pm, and Sunday,
11am–7pm. 415.454.6887.

17

The First and Last Place to Meet
902 MAIN ST, NAPA
707.258.2337 | downtownjoes.com

Saddles Steakhouse. $$$$$$$. A steakhouse in the
best American tradition, with
top-quality grass-fed beef. Pies
are made from fruit trees on
restaurant property. Dinner daily.
29 E MacArthur St, Sonoma.
707.933.3191.

Buster’s Barbecue
Barbecue. $. A very busy
roadside destination–for
a reason. It’s the hot sauce,
available in two heats: regular
and hot. And the hot, as the
sign says, means “hot!”
Lunch and dinner daily.
1207 Foothill Blvd, Calistoga.
707.942.5606.

Blocks of Ox
As unappealing as
it sounds, there’s
something sensual
about pit beef.
The aroma, the
preparation, the fact
that it takes over
half a day to cook—
it’s all about love.
But is pit beef, by
any other name, still
just as sweet? What if it’s called, say, roast ox?
That might be stretching the gastronomic
terminology just a bit, but the Sonoma
Community Center is calling its first summer
event of the year as such, and for $12 per
plate, who cares what it’s called? And they’re
accommodating—nay, inviting—children to
attend, with plates for little ones at just $7.
Twelve bucks a plate for dinner on the
Sonoma Plaza is about as rare as catching
the Blue Man Group having an intense
discussion about theology and literature
at Wal-Mart, but it turns out it’s simply
continuing a long tradition.
“The ox roast is almost 50 years old,”
says the Sonoma Community Center’s Toni
Castrone. “Back in the day, folks would dig
a fire pit in the plaza and roast a whole ox.
These days, we’re more considerate of the
natural setting of our plaza, so we use giant
firebox barbecues and roast a thousand
pounds of beef.”
A “Sauce Your Ox” barbecue sauce
competition will be judged by popular vote
with music supplied by the Air Force Band
Mobility and BackTrax. Ducks on the square
have been advised to waddle away from the
enormous grills for the day.
The Sonoma ox roast takes place
Sunday, June 5, on the Sonoma Plaza.
Food at 11am, music at 1pm. 707.938.4626.
www.sonomacommunitycenter.org.
—Nicolas Grizzle

Graton Ridge Cellars
Formerly an apple shed
beloved by regular customers
who drove up to get juice and
apples, this tasting room is
clean and contemporary, with a
bit of vineyardy wine country
art on the walls, and an
apple dessert wine. The
apples are not gone after all.
3561 Gravenstein Hwy. N.,
Sebastopol. Tasting room open
Friday–Sunday, 10am–
4:30pm. No fee. 707.823.3040.

Gundlach Bundschu
Winery (WC) A fun, casual
winery with enjoyable wines.
Shakespeare and Mozart
performed on the grounds in
the summer. 2000 Denmark St.,
Sonoma. Open daily, 10am–
5pm. 707.938.5277.

Imagery Estate Winery
Results from a 20-year
collaboration between
winemaker Joe Benziger
and artist Bob Nugent. The
concept: Commission unique
artwork from contemporary
artists for each release of often
uncommon varietal wines.
The wine gets drunk. The art
goes on the gallery wall. Not so
complicated. Count on the reds
and plan to take a stroll down
the informative “varietal walk”
on the grounds. 14335 Hwy.
12, Glen Ellen. Summer hours,
Sunday–Thursday, 10am–

4:30pm; Friday–Saturday,
10am–5pm. 707.935.4515.

Valley of the Moon
Winery This winery was
once owned by Sen. George
Hearst. Perhaps instead of the
epochal utterance “Rosebud,”
we could dub in “Rosé.”
777 Madrone Road, Glen Ellen.
Open daily, 10am–4:30pm.
707.996.6941.

NAPA
COUNTY
Castello di Amorosa
Not only an “authentic
Medieval Italian castle,”
but authentically far more
defensible than any other
winery in Napa from legions of
footmen in chain mail. In wine,
there’s something for every
taste, but don’t skip the tour of
great halls, courtyards, cellars,
and–naturally–an authentic
dungeon. . 4045 N. St. Helena
Hwy., Calistoga. 9:30am–5pm.
Tasting fees, $10–$15; tours,
$25–$30. Napa Neighbor
discounts. 707.967.6272.

Eagle & Rose Estate
(WC) Tours of this small winery
are led either by the winery
owner or the winemaker
himself. 3000 St. Helena Hwy.
N., Napa. By appointment.
707.965.9463.

Nichelini Winery
Take a joyride in the Napa
backcountry and discover this
rustic little winery that’s been
in the family for generations.
See the only Roman wine press
in the Western Hemisphere.
2950 Sage Canyon Road,
St. Helena. Saturday and
Sunday, 10am–5pm. No fee.
707.963.0717.

Olabisi & Trahan
Wineries In the fancy
heart of downtown Napa, a
low-budget “cellar” where
wines are shelved, with clever
economy, in stacks of wood
pallets; vibes are laid-back and
real. Carneros Chardonnay and
fruity but firm and focused Cab
and Merlot from Suisin Valley,
Napa’s much less popular
stepsister to the east. 974
Franklin St., Napa. Open daily,
noon–5:30pm. Tasting fee, $15.
707.257.7477.

Robert Sinskey
Vineyards In the lofty,
barnlike hall, visitors can take
in the tank room action; at
least, the gleaming stainless
steel, framed by wood and
stonework and brewpub-style
chalkboard menus imbues the
space with a sense of energetic
immediacy. “Gluttonous Flight”
pairs savory munchables
prepared in the gourmet
demonstration kitchen with
biodynamically farmed Careros
Pinot Noir and Bordeaux
varietals. 6320 Silverado Trail,
Napa. Open 10am–4:30pm
daily. 707.944.9090.

Round Pond Estate
Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
and Sauvignon Blanc served
tableside on the terrace with
scrumptious food pairings.
Who can’t imagine cozying up
next to the big gas-burning
hearth, watching the sun set
and savoring that Rutherford
dusk? 875 Rutherford Road,
Rutherford. Tastings by
appointment daily, 11am to
4pm. $25. 888.302.2575.

St. Supéry Expect to find
the tasting room crowded
with a harrassed staff, but St.
Supéry features an interesting
art gallery with changing
exhibitions. 8440 St. Helena
Hwy., Rutherford. Open
daily, 10am–5pm.
800.942.0809.

Schramsberg (WC)
Sparkling wine at its best. The
“tasting room” is a branch
of the cave illuminated with
standing candelabras.
1400 Schramsberg Road,
Calistoga. By appointment.
707.942.4558.

Trefethen Winery
Some critics claim Trefethen’s
heyday was in the ’60s, but
the winery proves them wrong
with dependable, delicious
wines. Trefethen is one of
the oldest wineries in Napa.
1160 Oak Knoll Ave., Napa.
Open daily, 11:30am–4:30pm.
707.255.7700.

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH EMI A N.COM

Most reviews by James Knight. Note: Those listings marked ‘WC’ denote wineries
with caves. These wineries are usually only open to the public by appointment.

etween â&#x20AC;&#x153;next
generation,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;single
nightâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;dance
party,â&#x20AC;? the notion of a Single
Vineyard Night must
generate a lot of frequently
asked questions. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s our
primer to help wrap your head
around this second annual,
action-packed event hosted
by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers this weekend.
Last year, this event was called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Single Night.â&#x20AC;? Does it help to be
single to enjoy a night in this vineyard?
No, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just for singles, but being over 21 might help. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a
winetasting and charity auction event featuring the potential
to win helicopter tours, overnight stays in winery cottages and
courtship-season safari adventures with the winemakers.
I see. So the winemakers are single?
Not necessarily. More than 30 winemakers will be paired up with
their grower partners pouring single-vineyard wines.
Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the story with these â&#x20AC;&#x153;single vineyardsâ&#x20AC;?? Are they shy or
something?
True, while a much-lauded skill of winemaking is in marrying lots
to create a blended wine that is greater than the sum of its parts,
the best single vineyard wines showcase flavors and aromas that,
year after year, prove themselves unique to their own little slice of
the Russian River Valley.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m too uniqueâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the excuse I use. Moving on, how come
thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no wine in this wine auction?
The Action Auction features â&#x20AC;&#x153;experiential lotsâ&#x20AC;? designed to
provide fun activities for groups, like zip-lining in the redwoods at
Foppoli Family Estate, an amphibious landing at Trione Winery
via canoe, a helicopter tour of the vineyards with Hop Kiln
winemaker Chuck Mansfield; kayaking, barbecues and more.
It sounds like winemakers are now adventure tour guides. Do
they still have time to squish grapes?
Yes, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be plenty of wine.
Can I come with a group so I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel insecure?
Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the whole point of the Action Auction. Groups can bid on a
lot that they can enjoy together, making it more affordable.
Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m getting a youthful vibe from all of this.
Lee Hodo, marketing manager for Russian River Valley
Winegrowers, allows that he formed the Millennial Council to help
the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next generation come up with ways to reach their peers
that were â&#x20AC;&#x153;basically more fun, less stuffy, but educational. The first
event was called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Single Nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in a shameless attempt at getting to
younger people but with the double entendre of pouring just single
vineyard wines.â&#x20AC;? Last year, the event sold out, and all ages attended.
That sounds exceptional, cool, dope or sickâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whatever the young
folks today say. How do I get there?
Single Vineyard Night is Saturday, June 4, at Thomas George
Estates. 8075 Westside Road, Healdsburg, 6:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;10pm. $45 presale,
$55 door, $80 VIP reception. 707.521.2535. www.rrvw.org.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;James Knight

Basin Street Blues

21

C

omprising six square blocks in the center of town,
Petaluma’s Theatre District was hailed on completion
in 2007 as a visionary mixed-use development
and a transformative project for the city. But new

ALTER EGO After cost overruns and broken promises, John Barella’s ties to
Basin Street Properties have left Petaluma officials feeling further betrayed.

information has surfaced that calls into question conﬂicts of
interest in the project, and shows that the developer backed
out of promises to share cost overruns, leaving the city of
Petaluma with a $9.6 million burden.
Such facts may not have
come to light were it not for the
ongoing ﬁght over the Roblar
Road quarry, which the Sonoma
County Board of Supervisors
approved by a 3–2 margin late
last year, and which a group of
over 200 residents have ﬁled a
lawsuit to stop.
The owner of the
quarry property is John
Barella, founder of local
construction ﬁrm North
Bay Construction. Barella
is also a major investor in
Basin Street Properties,
a real estate investment
and development ﬁrm
headquartered in Reno.
Basin Street Properties
has a strong interest in
the quarry because its
main properties are
in the North Bay, but
the extent to which
Barella is and has been
involved in Basin
Street Properties
has only recently
surfaced.
In April, Barella
ﬁled a declaration
in the Superior
Court lawsuit
asserting that he is
the “largest single
investor in Basin Street
Properties, and sits on
its board of directors.”
Barella has been
involved with Basin Street
Properties since 1996 and
has guaranteed $96 million in
loans to Basin Street Properties.
“I take an active role in the
management and affairs of Basin
Street and its related entities,”

Barella declares in the ﬁling. “The
quarry project is part of my longterm strategy with Basin Street,
as it will provide raw material to
be used in our land developments
over the next twenty years.”
Barella also claims that “under
the . . . ‘alter ego’ test, Barella and
Basin Street [are] considered
the same for conﬂict of interest
purposes.”
This disclosure of Barella’s
relationship with Basin Street
calls into question the propriety
of the government-funded
Theatre District project, say
former and current Petaluma
city officials. The redevelopment
of the public infrastructure
portion of Petaluma’s Theatre
District cost the city nearly
$10 million more than it had
initially budgeted, public
records show. The construction
work was performed by North
Bay Construction under the
supervision of Basin Street
Properties, which was contracted
with the city to do so.
Matt White, president of Basin
Street Properties, conﬁrms that
Barella was invested in his ﬁrm’s
Theatre District project. White
does not view this fact as posing
a conﬂict of interest. Others
disagree.
“It appears that an egregious
disclosure omission occurred, if
what’s now been sworn to by John
Barella and Matt White of Basin
Street in the Roblar Road quarry
litigation is true,” says former city
council member Pamela Torliatt.
“If Barella and Basin Street are
one and the same, there are a
lot of questions that need to be
) 22

NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH EMI A N.COM

The shady dealings behind Petaluma’s Theatre District
and the nearly $10 million bill left to the city BY PETER BYRNE

NORTH BAY BOHEM I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BO H E M I AN.COM

22 Basin Street Blues ( 21
answered regarding the millions
of dollars paid to North Bay
Construction and Basin Street.”
Torliatt and Petaluma mayor
David Glass are concerned that
Barella’s dual role as a Basin
Street Properties investormanager and as the owner of
North Bay Construction may
have impacted the ability of Basin
Street Properties to impartially
manage the city’s ﬁnancial
interests in the Theatre District
project.
“If I had known of Barella’s
ﬁnancial interest in Basin
Street Properties at the time,
I would not have approved of
the arrangement with North
Bay Construction,” Glass says.
“Finding this out now is like being
hit on the head by a 2-by-4.”

How It Began
In 2003, the Petaluma City
Council approved Basin Street
Properties’ plan to develop a
$100 million residential and
business complex on a riverfront
site previously occupied by
automobile dealers, auto body
shops and gas stations. The city
also agreed to pay for improving
sewage, street, sidewalk and
electrical infrastructure in the
public portion of Basin Street’s
proposed Theatre District.
Eager to redevelop the
downtown area, the city
sweetened the deal by
covering not only its share of
costs for constructing public
infrastructure, but also the
developer’s share, which was
$4.8 million. The city took on
the entire public infrastructure
cost of $7.5 million, which
included paying PG&E and SBC
to underground their wires in
the public area, normally the
responsibility of the developer or
the utility company.
The city contracted with Basin
Street Properties, who, acting on
behalf of the city, put the city’s
portion of the work out to bid.
North Bay Construction was
selected as the low bidder in
early 2004. This subcontracting
arrangement meant that
Basin Street Properties was

responsible for signing off on
the payment of city funds to
North Bay Construction, and
that Basin Street Properties
received a portion of the
public infrastructure budget
for supervising North Bay
Construction.
Concurrently, North
Bay Construction was also
constructing nonpublic
infrastructure for Basin Street’s
sprawling development, which
eventually encompassed the
Boulevard Cinemas multiplex, a
parking garage, waterfront office
buildings, residential lofts and
other retail. So there was some
logic to the arrangement—until
the initial construction costs and
management costs increased by
than 150 percent to $17.1 million,
and until Basin Street reneged
on a promise to help defray
$2 million in cost overruns.
As the project’s budget
skyrocketed, other city projects
stalled in its wake. In the end,
Petaluma was out of pocket for
$9.6 million.
In order to determine how
this happened, thousands of
pages of public records were
examined. Current and former
city officials and council members
were interviewed, as well as
Matt White, president of Basin
Street Properties, and his general
counsel, Paul Andronico. Barella
did not return repeated telephone
calls and emails requesting
comment.

Toxics? What
Toxics?
In August 2003, a geotechnical
study commissioned by the
city reported that “soil and
groundwater in the [Theatre
District] improvement area
are impacted by gasoline and
diesel fuel range hydrocarbons.
[Therefore] special handling of
soil and groundwater may be
required in these areas during
construction.”
But in its eagerness to
jumpstart the public-private deal,
the city council hastily forged
ahead with the Basin Street

AT THE GATES North Bay Construction was adding a 15 percent markup for itself

on bills from a subcontractor for the Theatre District, according to a city inspector.

Properties contract, declaring
that there was “no evidence”
that the massive development
would have a signiﬁcant effect on
the environment, nor that there
were hazardous wastes and toxic
substances buried in the soil and
groundwater of an area which
had been occupied by automobile
dealers, body shops and ﬁlling
stations for decades.
In mid-January 2004, however,
the city’s engineering manager,
Dean Eckerson, reported that
proposals of construction costs
were “exceed[ing] our original
cost estimates as well as Basin
Street Properties’ estimates
[which are] elevated due to
difficult subsurface conditions
due to high groundwater
and unstable soils, possible
contaminated soil conditions,
an aggressive schedule and
performing underground work
during the rainy season.”
Eckerson concluded that
“based on a comparison to
our recent bid prices for
similar work, many of the
items of work are higher than
expected. . . . Consequently,

it seems reasonable for Basin
Street Properties to pay for the
apparent cost differences since
they are controlling the schedule
resulting in the elevated costs for
public infrastructure.”
But Eckerson was overruled.
In February 2004, Matt
White, president of Basin Street
Properties, wrote to city manager
Mike Bierman that Basin Street
Properties was contracting
with North Bay Construction
for a “guaranteed maximum
price contract” of $8.7 million.
White informed Bierman
that the city’s redevelopment
commission “will need to fund
an additional $4.4 million” in
related costs, including costs of
design, engineering, landscaping,
legal fees and construction
management. This brought the
city’s total cost to $13.1 million—
already $5.6 million beyond the
original budget.
White softened the bad news
to Bierman with a promise:
“The balance will be paid by
means of an assessment district
[generating] $4.1 million. As
we have discussed, Basin Street

budget was intended to be used
only for construction change
orders, and not assigned to
unspeciﬁed “potential impacts” to
Basin Street Properties.
Andronico defends Sherrill’s
performance, saying that he and
the city’s construction managers
were a good team. In fact, after
the Theatre District job was
completed, Basin Street Properties
hired Sherrill as a staffer.
And, as Andronico points out,
some of the cost overruns were
due to inadequate planning
by city engineers. Delays also
occurred because the city
tried to minimize the effect
of construction-related street
closures on traffic and local
businesses. All in all, there
were plenty of unanticipated
consequences. The burning
question became: who pays?

The Money Hits
the Fan
On Sept. 19, 2005, the city
council amended its original
agreement with Basin Street
Properties and upped the original
project budget of $7.5 million
to $17.1 million. Searching for
ways to fund the $9.6 million
gap, the council, acting as the
redevelopment commission,
snatched money away from an
array of redevelopment projects
already in the works, including
Turning Basin improvements,
railroad depot reconstruction
and street pothole repairs. It
also took funds out of budgets
for wastewater operation,
ﬂood mitigation and street
reconstructions. City services
deteriorated as a result.
At the Sept. 19 meeting, city
council members castigated city
manager Bierman for allowing

overruns to occur for a year and a
half without informing the council
that the project was in deep
ﬁnancial straits. Bierman said he
was “personally embarrassed”
and that he “would not do it this
way again.” Councilman Mike
Healy tried to soften the blow:
“This is a teachable moment,” he
said, while voting for the increase.
Only council member Torliatt
voted against the measure to
absorb the extra costs. Objecting
to the city picking up the
increased tab, she noted, “We
[originally] picked up $4.8 million
as a public agency which a normal
developer would pay for.”
In approving the massive
Theatre District cost overrun,
the city council relied on White’s
promise to pay a portion of the
overruns through the formation
of the special tax assessment
district, which would assess
Basin Street Properties and other
property owners in the area for
construction and upkeep of
public improvements. The city
paid a consultant $72,000 to write
a proposal for forming the tax
assessment district.
But when the matter was slated
to come before area property
owners for a vote in late 2006,
Basin Street Properties informed
the city that it would not vote
to assess itself, thereby forcing
Petaluma to cover the $2 million
in additional costs that White had
said Basin Street would cover. By
that time, Basin Street Properties
was the sole property owner
subject to the proposed tax, so it
only took one vote to kill it.
According to the ﬁnal audit
trail on the project, the city ended
up on the hook for the whole
$17.1 million. That ﬁgure does
not include the interest on bonds
the city sold to ﬁnance payments

to North Bay Construction and
Basin Street Properties or to
cover the internal costs of its own
project managers, engineers and
technical consultants.
Key to the city’s ability to pay
off the bonds it sold to ﬁnance the
Theatre District project was an
arrangement that Basin Street’s
newly developed property deliver
the $500,000 per year in “tax
increment” funds that the city
had calculated in 2003 would
ﬂow from an increase in district
property taxes. But City Manager
John Brown says he does not
know if the tax increment is
generating the amount needed to
service the debt or not.
Regardless, it’s clear that the
Theatre District cost overruns
ﬂooded the city in red ink, even as
the economy was sinking into
deep recession. And it is clear that
despite its own administrative
failings, which were considerable,
the city relied upon Basin Street
Properties to act independently of
North Bay Construction. But
unbeknownst to top Petaluma
officials contacted for this story,
Basin Street Properties and
Barella are, as Barella swears
under oath, “considered the same.”
That’s not just another run-ofthe-mill conﬂict of interest. In
Petaluma’s case, it turned out to
be a very expensive one.

23
NO RTH BAY BO H E M I AN | JUNE 1-7, 20 1 1 | BOH E MI A N.COM

Properties will participate in
such an assessment district up
to $2 million.” The dedicated
property tax was to be paid only
by property owners in the Theatre
District. Taking White at his
word, city managers went along
and approved the mounting cost
overruns.
Part of the problem was that
when the hard costs of materials
and construction labor increase,
the “soft” costs of overseeing
construction rise in tandem. The
hard cost approved by the city
council in 2003 was $6.2 million.
In July 2008, the city recalculated
the hard costs at $14.6 million.
The increased soft costs brought
the total to $17.1 million.
Several city redevelopment
officials did try to rein in costs by
rejecting Basin Street Properties’
bills for “defective” construction
work. They disputed tens of
thousands of dollars in North
Bay Construction invoices
passed along to the city after
having been approved by Basin
Street’s outsourced construction
manager, Matt Sherrill, of San
Francisco–based Conversion
Management Associates Inc.,
which charged $311,000 for his
services.
The city’s staff of construction
managers and building inspectors
on the job site had their hands
full. For example, on Feb. 10, 2005,
a city inspector reported that
North Bay Construction
was impermissibly adding a
15 percent markup for itself
on bills from a subcontractor
that was itself overcharging for
travel and overtime and making
“excessive” and “unreasonable”
surcharges. And in May, a city
redevelopment manager wrote
to Sherrill that a $600,000 “super
contingency” in the project

Crush
P E TA L U M A

S A N TA R O S A

WHERE YOU LIVE

S A N TA R O S A

Wrecked Man

Bluegrass Bentley

Take Pride

Mountain Lions

There’s just something about a literate,
smart, quick-witted heartbroken man.
The Old 97s, who take their name from
an old country song, have for 18 years
consistently been more like a college
thesis than a scratchy old 45. Frontman
Rhett Miller has an erudite way with
words beﬁtting his creative-writing
background, even while draining his
guitar of feedback and his beer bottles
of their liquid inspiration. Live, the band
is a throwback to the energy that made
“alt-country” important in the ﬁrst place
before it got distilled by Prozac and
commercial success. Get swept up in
their sweet boozy twang on Friday, June 3,
at the Mystic Theatre. 21 Petaluma Blvd. N.,
Petaluma. 9pm. $21–$23.
707.765.2121.

Like many country stars before him,
Dierks Bentley broke away last year
to record a conﬁdent bluegrass album,
Up on the Ridge. Featuring covers of
Bob Dylan and U2, the record also has
Americana stars Del McCoury and Alison
Krauss. Bentley brings this new sound
to the Sonoma Country Music BBQ,
featuring Kellie Pickler and Joe “Tequila
Makes Her Clothes Fall Off” Nichols, on
Saturday, June 4, at the Sonoma County
Fairgrounds. 1350 Bennett Valley Road,
Santa Rosa. 4pm. $45–$55.

There are two main events for Pride
Weekend, and neither is to be missed.
Julie Goldman, a self-described New York
“butch-lez,” and Ali Maﬁ, “maybe the
world’s only gay Iranian comic,” headline
Pride Comedy Night on Saturday, June
4, at 8pm at the Wells Fargo Center
(50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa
Rosa; $19–$35; 707.546.3600). The next
day sees the fabulously titled celebration
Gay Sera, Syrah, with a morning parade
down Main Street in Guerneville and
ending with a festival featuring Coyote
Grace, Sistahs in the Pit, Ananta,
Polkanomics and others on Sunday,
June 6, at the Guerneville Lodge
(15905 River Road, Guerneville;
12pm; free). For more information,
see www.sonomacountypride.org.

In mountain-biking circles, the
Rockhopper is the stuff of legend.
A race featuring early adopters of a
new kind of racing. Guys like Gary
Fisher, Gavin Chilcott, Tom Murray. And
the place couldn’t have been better:
Annadel State Park. With threats to
close Annadel coming from Sacramento
almost monthly, it seems, Bike Monkey
is bringing back the Rockhopper under
the banner of the Annadel XC, a 14-, 19and 27-mile race beneﬁting park upkeep
and providing a formalized race on
the best mountain biking trails in the
region on Sunday, June 5, starting
in downtown Santa Rosa through to
Annadel State Park. 8am. Spectators
free; registration open until day of race.
www.bikemonkey.net.

lot of writers
I know really
donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have
anything to do
with the ďŹ lm,â&#x20AC;? says Megan
McDonald, author of the
Judy Moody childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book
series, about books made
into movies. But McDonald
is a special case. Not only
did she co-write the script
for Judy Moody and the Not
Bummer Summer, in theaters

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

June 10, but she spent
three months on set every
day giving input to the
ďŹ lmmakers and facilitating
last-minute changes.
McDonald, a Sebastopol native,
has been traveling the country in the
past month, promoting the ďŹ lm, but
it was just last week that the reality a
major motion picture sunk in.
During a phone interview from New
York, McDonald says sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surprised
at how big the series is in the Big

Apple. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can tell the buzz is really
building, but something about being
in the heat of Manhattan, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a
huge, huge billboard in Times
Square . . . Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sort of one of those
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pinch meâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; moments.â&#x20AC;?
With degrees in English and
library science, McDonald is humble
and literary when she explains her
favorite thing about the movie.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Where it really gets me is that there
are so many kids who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know
Judy Moody yet,â&#x20AC;? she says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is
going to be so cool, because it may

make readers out of them.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the nicest, most
genuine people Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever met,â&#x20AC;? says
Maraline Olson, owner of Screamin
Mimiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ice Cream in Sebastopol,
which is featured in the Judy Moody
series. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a great personâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and
I liked her before she was famous!â&#x20AC;?
Olsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shop has become a
destination for local fans and tourists
alike. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We get calls from kids in New
York City, all around the United
States, that have read her books.â&#x20AC;? The
shop will be central to the opening
weekend on June 11, when Olson
hosts a party with McDonald for what
will likely be hundreds of fans.
That might have enticed the star of
the movie, Jordana Beatty, to extend
her publicity tour before returning
to her native Australia. Beatty will be
at a special screening of the movie at
Petalumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Boulevard Cinemas on
June 12, and at CopperďŹ eldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Books,
nearby, after the movie.
Beatty, a fan of the series, is a
â&#x20AC;&#x153;perfect ďŹ tâ&#x20AC;? for the role of Judy,
says McDonald. Though she had to
develop an American accent before
shooting began, she has similarities
to Judy, even off-set. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of
spunky like her, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a big reader,
loves to collect stuff like Judy Moody
does,â&#x20AC;? said McDonald.
With stars like Heather Graham,
with the ďŹ lm in wide release
and especially with the authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
involvement, Judy Moody and the Not
Bummer Summer could be poised to
break the book-to-movie curse.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have,â&#x20AC;? says Olson, â&#x20AC;&#x153;very high
hopes for it.â&#x20AC;?
Screaminâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mimiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Judy Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
party takes place Saturday, June 11
(6902 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol; 4pm;
707.823.5902); the hosted screening at
Petalumaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Boulevard Cinemas is
Sunday, June 12 (200 C St., Petaluma;
$6.50â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$7; 707.762.7469), at 11am followed
by a free celebration at CopperďŹ eldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
Books at 2pm (140 Kentucky St.,
Petaluma; 707.762.0563).

Cinnabar goes
to Greece with
‘Shirley Valentine’
BY DAVID TEMPLETON

A

In Willy Russell’s powerful, onewoman comedic drama Shirley
Valentine, running through June 12
at Cinnabar Theater, Shirley is
now Shirley Bradshaw, a middleaged housewife with two grown
children, a husband who is less
than caring and a tendency to talk
to her kitchen wall while ﬁxing
dinner. Through a brilliantly
constructed, humor-laced script,
Shirley—played to hilarious and

s a working-class
English schoolgirl,
Shirley Valentine
used to jump off rooftops
for fun. She was hungry for
adventure and dreamed of
traveling the world. Mostly,
Shirley wanted a life as
large as her own kind but
cautious heart.

heart-breaking perfection by Mary
Gannon Graham—recounts the
uninspiring details of her life: her
boring days, ungrateful children
and unsatisfying sex life, all while
adding her own wry and pointedly
funny observations.
“Marriage,” she says, “is like the
Middle East—there’s no solution.”
Gradually, she confesses her
unfulﬁlled dreams, all of them
buried years ago along with her
name and her once-spirited self.
We soon learn, however, that one
of those dreams may have recently
been unearthed as Shirley’s
neo-feminist friend Jane invites
her along on a two-week trip to
Greece. It’s a trip she is aching to
take, but is too terriﬁed of asking
her husband for permission.
“I have led such a little life,”
she cries in a moment of despair.
“Why do we get all these feelings
and dreams and hopes if we don’t
ever use them? That is how Shirley
Valentine disappeared—she got
lost in all this unused life.”
We easily root for Shirley,
hoping she will ﬁnd the courage
to follow her heart, and when she
does, the result is electrifying. The
second half of the show is set in
Greece, where Shirley recounts
her gradual reconnection with that
youthful self she’d thought was
gone forever.
Directed by John Shillington
with a sense of elegant ease
and a knack for illuminating
Russell’s emotionally multifaceted
language, the play immediately
leaps to the top of the “must-see”
list of the summer. As good as the
script and direction are, the main
attraction is Gannon Graham as
Shirley. Another performance of
such loving generosity, depth and
skill would be hard to ﬁnd.
As our heroine says toward
the end of the play, “I’ve fallen in
love with the idea of living.” In
this lovely, deeply moving and
subversively wise play, Shirley
Valentine’s life-affirming discovery
is nothing short of contagious.

verloaded and over-charactered, X-Men: First
Class is a movie about the 1960s, and like all
recent movies about the 1960s, it assumes that
every historical moment in that decade happened at
the same time. Nonetheless, Cold War paranoia and the
Cuban Missile Crisis add historical resonance to the
dispute between mutants and humans.
James McAvoy is the young Professor Xavier, the world’s most
powerful psychic; Michael Fassbender is the bitter Erik, later to
become master of magnetism, Magneto. The conﬂict of two worthy
adversaries evokes the dispute between Martin Luther King and a
young Malcolm X, and CIA liaison Moira (Rose Byrne) and the mutant
Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) add their personalities to the struggle.
There’s also a ’60s spy movie motif, complete with split screen,
mini-skirts and Austin Powers pickup lines. Fassbender is on the
trail of a powerful ex-Nazi, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who
has a private nuclear submarine loaded with a collection of postimpressionist art, a literally Satanic henchman (Jason Flemyng) and
a lingerie-clad psychic moll Emma Frost (January Jones).
This is, as it sounds, fun.
But it wasn’t enough. Someone also thought this movie should be
Harry Potter; thus, dead-on-the-screen scenes of students sharing
their powers over Cokes, Oreos and “The Hippy Hippy Shake.”
By the ﬁnale, director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) is lining up his
mutants like a boy playing with action ﬁgures. Vaughn’s strength—
not that I admire it—is to employ cartoon violence and take it too far.
In X-Men: First Class, Vaughn could have gotten further punch
from the destruction by telling us more about the characters we came
to see. We don’t get the sense Xavier ever had childhood trouble
because he read the wrong mind; we don’t see the two adversaries
agree that people are often no good. And Xavier has no hothead
tendencies, even when he’s young.
Lack of dramatic ground work leads to the uninspiring ﬁnale: a
moment of caped and cowled menace made dismayingly, ineptly comic.
‘X-Men: First Class’ opens in wide release Friday, June 3.

NEW MOVIES

diet is responsible for most of our ailments. At
Summerfield Cinemas. (NB)

Midnight in Paris (PG-13; 100 min.) A
screenwriter writing a first novel in Paris is
transported to the city’s rich 1920’s culture in
the latest from Woody Allen. Co-stars Owen
Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates and
Adrien Brody. At Summerfield Cinemas in
Santa Rosa and CineArts in Mill Valley. (NB)

The Hangover Part II (R; 102 min.)
This time the boys are in Thailand to quietly
celebrate the wedding of Stu (Ed Helms), but
things of course go terribly, terribly wrong.
There’s a funny monkey! Co-stars Zach
Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper. (NB)

X-Men: First Class (PG-13;
140 min.) A trip down memory lane shows us
the early work of noble mutants Professor X
and Magneto as they fight to stop a nuclear
holocaust. See review, adjacent page

ALSO PLAYING
Bridesmaids (R; 125 min.) Hangover for the
girls. Hilarious Kristen Wiig co-stars with Maya
Rudolph in raunchy-ish chic flick about a Vegas
bridal party that goes too far. Directed by Paul
Feig of Freaks and Geeks fame and produced by
Judd Apatow. (NB)

In a Better World (R; 113 min.) A Danish
couple, on the verge of divorce, must confront
their bullied son’s new defender, a violent boy
angry over the loss of his mother to cancer. (NB)
Kung Fu Panda 2 (PG; 95 min.) Jack
Black is back voicing Po, panda warrior, who
must protect the Valley of Peace—and the
art of kung fu itself—from a new danger. Also
features the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Angelina
Jolie, Seth Rogen and Jackie Chan. (NB)
Meek’s Cutoff (PG; 104 min.) Wagons
heading west are led astray by a loony
mountain-man guide in this view of the West
from the perspective of pioneer women. (NB)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides (PG-13; 137 min.)

(NR; 90 min.) This documentary from the great
Werner Herzog takes viewers inside France’s
Chauvet Cave, site of the oldest known human
art, created over 30,000 years ago. At
Petaluma’s Boulevard Cinemas. (NB)

Number four in the franchise follows Johnny
Depp’s Jack Sparrow on a quest for the
Fountain of Youth. New perils on this journey
include mermaids, zombies and the dread pirate
Blackbeard. Also in 3-D. (NB)

The Double Hour (NR; 102 min.) A retired
cop in Turin falls for a Slovenian maid, but their
romance is endangered when her dark past is
exposed on a trip to the country. In Italian with
English subtitles. At the Smith Rafael Center. (NB)

Rio (PG; 96 min.) Blu, a pet macaw, leaves his
comfortable home in Moose Lake, Minn., to
seek a mate. Animated, with the voices of Anne
Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg. (NB)

Everything Must Go (R; 100 min.) Will
Ferrell drops into a serious role as an alcoholic
who sells everything in an attempt to start
over. Based on a story by Raymond Carver. At
Summerfield Cinemas. (NB)

Fast Five (PG-13; 113 min.) Vin Diesel and
Paul Walker team up with Dwayne Johnson in
the fifth installment of the Fast and Furious
series. (NB)

The First Grader (PG; 120 min.) Justin
Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) directs
the story of an 80-year-old Kenyan man
determined to learn to read after the
government institutes the nation’s first public
school system—and the parents and school
officials who don’t want resources wasted on
him. Based on a true story. At Summerfield
Cinemas and the Smith Rafael Center. (NB)
Forks Over Knives (PG; 90 min.) An
acclaimed documentary that examines the
claim—and evidence—that our meat-based

Something Borrowed (PG-13;
103 min.) Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin and
John Krasinski star in rom-com about friends
sleeping with friends’ fiancees and whatnot.
Based on the 2005 bestseller by Emily Giffin. (NB)
13 Assassins (NR; 126 min.) From cult
director Takashi Miike comes the remake of
a ’60s martial arts classic about a band of
samurai enlisted to defeat a sadistic warlord. At
the Smith Rafael Center. (NB)

Thor (PG-13; 130 min.) The summer season
kicks off early with fantasy-adventure based on
the Marvel comic. Directed by Kenneth Branagh
and starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman
and Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s pop, Odin. (NB)
Water for Elephants (PG-13; 122 min.)
A veterinarian (Robert Pattinson) is saved by
the circus during the Great Depression, where
he falls for the star of the horse show (Reese
Witherspoon), wife of the sadistic animal
trainer. (AD)

t’s 1988, or maybe1989.
J Mascis is in a van,
driving cross-country
on tour with Lou Barlow and
Murph, the drummer. As
Dinosaur Jr., they haven’t
quite yet become the stuff
of indie-rock legend. In a
few months, they’ll score
an underground hit with
a cover of the Cure’s “Just
Like Heaven,” and they’ll
be embraced by alternativerock overlords Sonic Youth,
and Barlow will either be
ﬁred or choose to leave the
band (depending on who’s
telling the story).

But right now, Murph is
obsessed with two albums—
and one of them is Shooting
Rubberbands at the Stars by Edie
Brickell. When it’s his turn to drive,

and he’s not playing Frank Zappa,
he’s playing Edie Brickell.
Twenty years later, a cover of
Brickell’s song “Circle,” the most
heartfelt song from one of the ’80s
most earnest albums, will ﬁnd a
place in Mascis’ live set as he tours
for his 2011 release, a collection
of acoustic songs called Several
Shades of Why.
“Megan, who runs Sub Pop,
wanted me to do it. She was our
Dinosaur T-shirt person for the
tour where Murph was playing that
Edie Brickell album all the time, so
we kind of got into it, just because
we heard it so much,” says Mascis
on the phone from his home in
Amherst, Mass. “I kind of hated
it at ﬁrst, but started liking it. At
least it was a change from Zappa.”
On the surface, the cover might
seem like a shock from Mascis, a
gray-haired Rip Van Winkle–type
reclusive ﬁgure who speaks like
he’s just woken from a hundredyear nap. But Brickell’s song about
the joy of being alone actually
ﬁts well with the pensive songs
on Several Shades of Why, a big
departure from Mascis’ usual
blisteringly loud guitar dynamics.
Mascis says while the tone of
his solo effort may be sweetly
aching, this is not a break-up
album, though songs like “Is It
Done” might come across that
way. “It’s just kind of about general
depression. Trying to deal with
other people,” he says. “It’s not all
autobiographical. “
The tour for the album takes
Mascis across the country, including
a stop at Gundlach Bundschu
winery’s Huichica Festival on June 4.
While playing acoustic live and
alone is “nerve-wracking,” he says,
one thing keeps him going.
“The thought of having to go
back to a band and dealing with
other people helps me,” says Mascis.
“Because then I think about, ‘Oh
man, dealing with all these other
people,’ and then it’s just like, well,
maybe this isn’t so bad.”
Yes, in J Mascis’ world, being
alone really is the best existence.
J Mascis plays on Saturday, June 4,
at Gundlach Bundschu Winery along
with Fruit Bats, Sonny and the Sunsets
and more. 2000 Denmark St., Sonoma.
2–11pm. $55. 707.938.5277.

Poetry SoCoCo. Join Ed Coletti
and friends for evening of
poetry on the first Sat of
every month, 7 to 9. Free.
707.527.6434. 1015 Fourth St,
Santa Rosa.

Book Passage
Jun 1 at 7, “No Biking in the
House Without a Helmet”
with Melissa Fay Greene.
Jun 2 at 7, “Run: 26.2 Stories
of Blisters and Bliss” with
Dean Karnazes. Jun 3 at 7,
“Real-Lifetales of First Love”
with Andrea Richesin, and
“An Extravagent Hunger:
The Passionate Years of MFK
Fisher” with Anne Zimmerman,
and “Real-Lifetales of First
Love” with Andrea Richesin
and contributors. Jun 4 at
1, “Self-Compassion” with
Kristin Neff; at 4, “The Tenth
Door” with Michele Hebert,
and “Sweetness and Blood”
with Michael Scott Moore; at 7,
“Transforming Terror” with Karin
Carrington and Susan Griffin.
Jun 5 at 4, “Wicked Bugs”
with Amy Stewart. Jun 6 at 7,
“Children and Fire” with Ursula
Hegi. Jun 7 at 1, “In the Garden

3 from Geography
& Plays

D’Arc:
Woman on Fire
Play depicts a present-day
intercession by Joan of Arc in
life of Joanne, a contemporary
mother. Through Jun 5;
Thurs-Sat at 8, Sun at 2.
$15-$20. Main Stage West,
104 North Main St, Sebastopol.
707.823.0177.

The BOHEMIAN’s calendar is
produced as a service to the
community. If you have an item
for the calendar, send it by email to calendar@bohemian.
com, or mail it to: NORTH BAY
BOHEMIAN, 847 Fifth St, Santa
Rosa CA 95404. Please DO NOT
SEND e-mail attachments.
The BOHEMIAN is not
responsible for photos. Events
costing more than $35 may be
withheld. Deadline is 2 weeks
prior to desired publication date.

Intermezzo

Live opera continues on
the big screen
It’s tough to afford even going out
to see a movie these days, let alone
world-class opera. Well, leave the
Benjamins at home and put on a Tshirt and blue jeans, kids, we’re going
to the opera—in Santa Rosa. Not one,
but two theaters are showing live
opera on the big screen this year.
Rialto Cinemas, who pioneered opera
screenings in the area, continues its
Metropolitan Opera HD broadcasts from
June 15 to July 27. Madame Butterﬂy
(above) kicks things off on June 15, with
Don Pasquale, Simon Boccanegra, La Fille
du Régiment, Tosca and Don Carlo to follow.
Additionally, the Rialto shows live theater,
with Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being
Earnest and Anton Chekov’s Cherry Orchard
screening in June and July, as well as good
old independent ﬁlms. Screenings are
at Sixth Street Playhouse, 99 Sixth St.,
Santa Rosa. 707.525.4840.
Not to be outdone, Summerﬁeld Cinemas
is also showing live opera and ballet in the
Rialto’s former location. First up are two
completely free HD screenings on June 2
of Giuseppe Verdi’s most well-known work,
Aida, broadcast live and conducted by
Zubin Mehta from the Teatro del Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. It’s
got war, love, drama and tragedy—kind
of like Titanic, which has never been
performed by the Met (that we know of).
Also on the slate are Macbeth, Swan Lake,
Don Giovanni, Spartacus, La Bohème
and more, screening at Summerﬁeld
Cinemas, 51 Summerﬁeld Road, Santa Rosa.
707.522.0719.—Nicolas Grizzle

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A spiritual practice for couples and individuals that reveals unconditional loving as our true nature. After 15
years in Berkeley, Gateway Institute is now in Healdsburg. Heather Parrish, Ph.D. MFC36455. 707-473-9553.